Newburgh's 14U Blue Crush headed to World Series

Time after time this summer, Cole Barnett and his 14U Blue Crush teammates out of the Newburgh Junior Baseball league saw their opponents melt down and ultimately lose.

That's not a concern for the Babe Ruth World Series-bound team, the core of which has played together for seven years.

"We have so much more chemistry than the average team," Barnett said. "I think that gives us a huge advantage."

Coached by Troy Kough, the Newburgh all-stars clinched the Babe Ruth Ohio Valley Regional Tournament on July 30 to advance to the 14-year-old World Series this week in Murray, Utah. The 10-team tournament starts pool play Saturday, with the top four teams moving on to a single-elimination bracket.

Of the team's 15 players, 13 will be freshmen this fall at Castle High School, one a sophomore there and another a freshman at Memorial. More than half of the team, including first baseman Jake Kough (Troy's son), have played together since they were 7.

"The fact that they can play as a team and stay together like that — it's their main attribute," Troy Kough said.

"... Newburgh Junior Baseball has really been lucky to have this all-star program and keep the kids together all the way until they get to Castle High School."

The 14U Blue Crush team will face opponents from New Jersey, Arkansas and Utah during pool play. A four-team single-elimination bracket starts Aug. 23, and a champion is crowned on Aug. 25.

Blue Crush is the first Newburgh Junior Baseball team to make a Babe Ruth World Series since the 1980s and first in its age group, Kough said.

"There's a lot of sense of pride in that," he said. "It's what you work hard to do, and obviously it's not an easy accomplishment since no team around the area has done it in a long, long time ... . We're extremely happy to be going, but we're not just happy to show up."

Blue Crush is led by pitchers Will Randell and Dylan Meeks, who earned the regional-clinching, 9-6 win over a Saginaw, Mich., squad last month. The team also has a lineup that can hit throughout, a trait that helped them in a regional tournament game. Opposing coaches yelled "eight and nine hitter!" as the bottom of the Blue Crush order came to the plate.

"Of course that never makes a kid feel good, but those were the winning runs," Troy Kough said.

More than likely, this is the team's last chance at a World Series. High school players typically compete in Legion baseball rather than come back for 15-year-old Babe Ruth, Kough said.

The age group won the Ohio Valley Regional as 11-year-olds, but Cal Ripken leagues don't have a World Series at that level.

"We've been so close so many times," said Barnett. "I knew we had to get it one year, and finally this was it."